Mao Tao suddenly piped up, “By the way, wasn’t Songyang Mansion originally founded by a prince of a different surname? How come it’s now in the hands of the Marquis of Songyang?”

“Oh, that’s because Yuan changed its inheritance system halfway through. Titles without sufficient merit dropped with each generation. Two successive lords of Songyang Mansion were pretty unremarkable, so their rank got downgraded. Later, when the late emperor came to power, the rules were changed back. Complicated story, but in short, the Marquis of Songyang’s title is hereditary now. As long as he doesn’t commit a major crime, it won’t change again.”

With the broken saber issue settled, He Lingchuan raised a new request with Fixer Liu. Now, he wanted to buy a pill furnace.

Since he was going to focus on cultivating the Meridian Art, he would need custom-made medicines. Ready-made pills would be hard to find. Most of the time, he would have to make them himself. He had also heard that pill furnaces came in grades, and good ones could raise success rates by more than ten percent.

As before, Fixer Liu readily agreed, but then turned the question back on him, “Do you actually know how to refine pills? Or do you have an expert at your side?”

“Not at all. I’m a complete beginner. My plan is to buy a pill furnace, bring it back, and figure it out as I go.”

Fixer Liu chuckled and said, “That’s easier said than done. Pill refining isn’t just tossing herbs into a pot. You have to learn the names and properties of different herbs, the temperatures that the flame needs to be at, hand techniques, and a lot more… Without at least three or four years of focused study, you won’t even scratch the surface. And in the meantime, you’ll waste an awful lot of ingredients.”

He Lingchuan caught the meaning behind his words. “Sounds like I’m not the only one suffering from a problem like this, then?”

“Exactly. Most cultivators don’t want to split their focus. My advice? Hire a medicine ape.”

“A medicine ape?” He Lingchuan blinked. “What’s that, some kind of monster?”

The capital really is full of strange things.

“That’s right. There’s a sect called Thousand-Heart Flow. They raise fire apes, and they’re famous for alchemy. They even have branches here in Shihuan. If you’ve got money, you can hire a medicine ape to live in your household and refine pills for you.”

“How skilled are they?”

“They’re on par with spellcasters who focus on the Dao of alchemy, and sometimes they’re even better. I heard State Preceptor Sun himself used to keep several of them at home.”

He Lingchuan laughed. “Sun Fuping really is a golden brand name. Anything connected to him turns into money.”

Fixer Liu quickly waved his hands. “Careful! You can’t say things like that out loud anymore.”

“Alright, take me there.”

“A warning, though, they’re quite expensive. And if you do hire one, you have to treat it with respect. You can’t treat it like a pet or a slave. Otherwise, it’ll just leave.”

Mao Tao tilted his chin. “Money isn’t a problem as long as it’s worth the price.”

“That’s another thing,” Fixer Liu cautioned. “Never call it a thing to its face. Do that, and it’ll flip out. I once saw a man anger a medicine ape, and it then clawed his face bloody in public and gave him three days of diarrhea afterward.”

So hiring a little monkey means you also have to watch your words? He Lingchuan and Mao Tao exchanged a look, and they both shrugged.

The carriage turned north.

As they passed through the marketplace, Mao Tao, who had been peering out through the curtain the whole way, suddenly said, “Hey, isn’t that A’deng, Old Steward Mo’s boy? What’s he pasting on the wall?”

He Lingchuan leaned out for a look. Sure enough, it was one of the He Family’s young servants, sticking a proclamation onto the notice wall. Two soldiers of the Coordinating Army stood beside him.

Fixer Liu instantly called for the carriage to halt.

The market was always packed with people coming and going. When the authorities had an announcement, they posted it here. Ordinary folk could not stick up anything, and if some random rascal tried, he would be dragged off, slapped twenty times, and maybe even tossed in jail if the offense was serious.

For a He Family servant to be posting something here meant that it was an official announcement.

The three words at the top of the notice were bolded and heavy. Mao Tao muttered them aloud, “Looking for talent?”

There was not much text on the notice. He Lingchuan finished reading it in two glances. It basically stated that the new Governor-General of Xia Province, He Chunhua, was eager for capable men. He invited local talent to accompany him north to suppress the rebels. Birth and status did not matter; all that was needed was real skill in marching, logistics, combat, or administration. Applicants would be tested and well rewarded. At the bottom was Governor-General He’s official seal in red wax.

Most commoners could not even read two large characters. That was why A’Deng, the He Family servant, also had to act as an announcer or town crier, reading the recruitment edict aloud, then explaining it to the crowd.

He Chunhua was not really targeting these people anyway. His goal was for them to spread the news by word of mouth. The Coordinating Army’s stay in Shihuan was limited, so the more quickly the message traveled, the better.

The crowd grew thicker and thicker. Since He Chunhua was an outsider, few here had heard of him before. People were curious, chattering nonstop. The street was getting clogged, so He Lingchuan told the driver to move on.

Mao Tao asked in puzzlement, “Why didn’t Lord He just bring people from Heishui City with him? At least he knows who he can trust. Why come here to beg for talent?”

When He Chunhua had set off north, he had only brought five or six aides, and of those, only Mozhe Jingxuan was really worth the name. For administration and logistics, his resources were painfully thin.

“Small towns and cities don’t have many capable people,” He Lingchuan said, resting his chin in one hand. “But this is the capital’s doorstep. You can find every sort of talent here.”

He remembered how his father was always complaining about being short-handed, forced to take everything on himself. Heading to Xia Province now, he would need to assemble a full team as quickly as possible. Building a foundation of talent early was critical.

The enemy to the north was still eyeing them like a tiger. Time for He Chunhua, as well as Xia Province, was running out.

“I hope that Father can recruit the right people soon.”

He Lingchuan shook his head, brushing the thought away. This was not his headache to deal with. That was for He Chunhua and He Yue to worry about.

Before long, the carriage climbed a small hill.

The peak was graceful, no more than a hundred meters high. Now it lay draped in silver and white, with snow often shaken loose from the swaying branches in soft, whispering flurries.

The carriage halted before a paifang archway that blocked the road. It was not that the driver did not want to continue bringing them onward; it was that he simply could not do so. The archway was not even two meters tall but spanned the entire road.

The thing looked deliberately petty, like it was there to demand tolls.

From a distance, He Lingchuan spotted several stone urns perched atop the arch. When he drew closer, he realized they were not urns at all, but large gray-furred monkeys whose color blended perfectly with the stone!

They crouched on the archway, stiff and silent, until a traveler approached. They then spoke in low, muffled voices, “Thousand-Heart Flow Guesthouse, visitors must go on foot.”

Fixer Liu got down from the carriage and offered a few pieces of candied pastry to an older monkey with graying fur. The old fellow distributed them to the rest, then Fixer Liu cupped his hands politely. “Old Tang, it’s been three days. I’ve come to hire an apothecary for the eldest son of Governor-General He of Xia Province.”

He deliberately called them apothecaries, never apes.

“Will they have to produce medicine often?”

“Of course,” He Lingchuan answered. “About once every two or three days.”

Cultivating the Meridian Art required him to take yin and yang pills as fresh as possible. It was only then that the medicine’s effect could be maximized. If he made the medicine on his own, he could only make enough to last half a month. With a helper, though, meeting that frequency would be easy.

Fixer Liu explained to him, “Controlling fire for pill refining is core cultivation for fire apes. Thousand-Heart Flow encourages them to refine diligently so they can improve in their practice.”

Fixer Liu then turned to the old monkey and said, “Old Tang, are there any apothecaries available?”

“You’ve come at a bad time. A grand apothecary from out of town just hired twelve in one go.” The old monkey scratched his back. “Only one remains.”

Mao Tao muttered under his breath to Fixer Liu, “What if it’s just the one nobody else wanted?”

The white-haired monkey had sharp ears despite his age. He glared and said, “What nonsense are you spouting, boy?”

Fixer Liu cleared his throat. “Old Tang, both sides need clarity. Is there anything special about this apothecary?”

Hiring was a two-way matter. Both sides had to weigh each other carefully.

“His alchemy skills are excellent. He rarely has any failed furnaces. Among all our fire apes, he’s one of the best.”

When one failed in the process of refining a pill, the result was called a failed furnace. High-grade pills cost a fortune to produce, and a single failed batch could mean losses of tens of thousands of taels.

Fixer Liu probed carefully, “So, is it because he eats too much?”

“No, no.”

“Then, is it that he doesn’t keep clean or has an odor?” Monkeys already carried a musk, and without bathing, it could be unbearable. Some households could not stand it.

“No!” Old Tang’s eyes went wide. “Whatever bad habits you’re imagining, Ling Guang has none of them. He’s the most diligent, promising, and smart one among us. He just happened to be away when the others were hired.”

The old monkey hopped to the ground. “Come, I’ll take you to see him.”

The archway was built so low that He Lingchuan could very well leap over it in front of these Thousand-Heart Flow monkeys. He had to stoop and duck through instead.

The monkeys looked on with grins, some baring their teeth in amusement. Humans bowing their heads and bending their backs to pass through clearly pleased their mean little sense of humor.

Up on the hill were only a handful of buildings, large and empty. When He Lingchuan glanced upward, he noticed several great trees with treehouses lashed into the branches, and shadows shifting among the limbs.

Naturally, monkeys preferred the heights.

Old Tang called out a few times, and soon there came a chorus of chattering in reply. A moment later, a monkey swung down through the branches, landing lightly on a tree limb in front of them.

This one’s fur was paler than the others, and it wore a little straw hat.

He Lingchuan took in its slender build, its nimble movements, its unusually clean coat. Its eyes were bright, not darting about in constant distraction like common monkeys. Instead, after a quick glance over the group, it fixed directly on He Lingchuan, as though it knew he was the one who mattered.

Old Tang introduced him, and then He Lingchuan asked, “You’re Ling Guang?”

The monkey nodded. It did not scratch or fidget, but stood there calm as any person.

“Old Tang recommends you as my medicine ape. I’ve got a few ingredients here. Can you refine them into thousand-mending pills?”

Ling Guang understood that this was a test and dropped neatly to the ground. From who knew where, he produced a tiny furnace no bigger than a palm and set it down.

Before their eyes, the furnace swelled, expanding until it stood level with Mao Tao’s shoulder.

After that, Ling Guang extended his hand to He Lingchuan.

For a monkey, his palm was startlingly clean, free of dirt or leaf litter.

Taking the herbs, Ling Guang tossed them into the furnace in quick handfuls, without the cautious measuring and fretting over every fraction that He Lingchuan himself would have done.

Then, the monkey leaned forward and blew gently toward the furnace’s base. With a sudden whoosh, fire sprang to life inside.

It was no wonder they called them fire apes.

From there, Ling Guang worked in a blur. The flames rose and fell at his command, flaring deep, then lightening, their colors shifting from bright to dim. Every so often, he flicked in more herbs. He moved so fast that the onlookers could barely see what he had added.